Over against all human sceptical reasoning, the Church proclaims: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” This ancient greeting of Christians has provided comfort, hope and courage, as the good news of resurrection joy has been contagiously spread around the world.

My favourite story of accentuating the good news of the risen Messiah goes back to communist Russia. On Easter Sunday in 1940 in Odessa, a crowd of some 40,000 Christians gathered to worship the risen Christ, However, communist agitators harassed them by making atheistic propaganda speeches for four hours. Afterwards, a congregant begged to say a few words and was granted permission. He stood up before all of those worshippers and said: “Brothers and sisters, Christ is risen!” Then, from the mouths of 40,000 followers of Jesus the reply roared out, “He is risen indeed!